Beer Advocate bottle share/tasting at Beer Revolution

Last night a bunch of Beer Advocate members met up at Beer Revolution in Oakland to share beers from our cellars.  Each person was supposed to bring two 22oz bottles, or the equivalent, in rare or out-of-region beer, and then we opened everything and tasted away.

The Lumberjack & I brought Cigar City Big Sound Scotch Ale (Scotch Ale, 8.5% ABV) and Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan (Brown Ale, 4.5% ABV), as well as two other bottles that we received as extras in past trades, and whose names have escaped me.  It was a little nerve-wracking to pull out the beers, since I wanted desperately to impress people, and of course everyone else didn't even really notice what I brought.  Anyway.

There ended up being around 20 people there in our group, which means I tried probably 35-40 beers last night.  You wanted notes on all of them?  Ha.  No.  I do remember rambling at the Lumberjack as we wandered home (but stopping for a hotdog first outside the Uptown) about a few, though, so that's what you'll get.

Kern River Citra DIPA (Double IPA, 8% ABV).  This was the first beer I tried, which might explain why I remember it so well.  But also, it was delicious.  It was pretty foggy, sort of honey-coloured.  It was poured from a growler, but the carbonation held up quite well.  Smells delicious, fruity and citrusy.  It was very smooth, not bitter at all.  It had a little bit of piney hops flavour, but not too much - there was enough of the citrus hops to balance things and make me like it.  I might have gone back for a few more tastings, once I realized everyone had tried it and there was still extra.  This DIPA is delicious and very drinkable, even for IPA-hating newbies.

chuck's on the left, and the right is troy?
trevor? either way, he's very nice.

Lost Abbey Veritas (Sour Ale, 8% ABV).  That is one damn sour beer.  Don't drink it unless you want your mouth to pucker up uncontrollably.  One of my new friends (I can't remember anyone's name, of course, especially since they were almost all one-syllable dude names like Chris and Chad and Dan) just laughed and said "there's no way to NOT pucker while drinking this."  Very true.  I can't remember much of the flavour or specifics, just that I found it very enjoyable, even as it felt like I was losing all moisture from my tongue.  Definitely worth trying out, although if you don't like sours you'll probably not enjoy it.  And since it's from Lost Abbey, be prepared to shell out a bunch of $$$ for the pleasure.

blending the stout with the red

...something that was too smokey, a nice but forgettable IPA, a blackberry lambic that was super tasty, BELGIAN RED! BELGIAN RED!, something-something-Duchess which I loved, and was then told by the Lumberjack that I tasted and hated it last year, a couple of porters and stouts that were pretty tasty...

Oh!  A few people tried out beer mixing, which was fun.  I poured half a taster of BELGIAN RED! and added Smuttynose Stout on top, and it was a tasty blend - kind of like chocolate-covered cherries.

thanks, dude.

I had a dorky beer moment when I realized that someone had brought Black Tuesday (Imperial Stout, 19% ABV - yes - NINETEEN PERCENT HOLY CRAP), which is somewhat of a celebrity in the beer world, I am learning.  I remember this guy was one of the Chrises (Chriss?  Chris?  Chris's?  names that end in S confuse me), and he was very nice.  Getting a Black Tuesday is apparently near-impossible, so having a chance to taste it and see what it's all about was pretty exciting.

And?  Wow.  That beer really is worth all the hubbub.  It was super boozy, as one might expect from being NINETEEN PERCENT ALCOHOL, and that definitely smacked me in the nose when I took a sip, but the flavour was awesome.  Very smooth, very delicious.  It was quite oily and thick, which would make it hard to drink a lot, but nice to have a small sample.  I can't imagine anyone drinks much of this anyway, seeing as how it's NINETEEN PERCENT.  This seemed like a perfect beer to share.  As you can see, we were pretty psyched.

In the end, I stumbled home a little bit drunk but very happy.  Of course I had to be up bright & early to give a work presentation this morning, which was a little rough.  But the other presenter and I talked beer for a bit, I gave my speech and got the whole room laughing about health insurance, and was approached afterward by a woman who says I was the best presenter she's seen, so I guess everything turned out okay.  But my head still hurts a bit.

The Port is open and the Abbey has been found....

We went back to the City Beer Store a few days later for the Lost Abbey/Port Brewing event.  All the beers on tap were special for the event, and a lot of them were interrelated or mixed together which seemed pretty creative to me (although I guess that's not terribly uncommon).

First up I had Lost Abbey Double Cherry Red Poppy (Sour Ale, 5.5% ABV).  It's a Flanders Style Sour Ale, and I thought it was totally delicious.  It was super sour when I first sipped it, but then I waited a second, and swallowed again and it was warmer and more sweet.  I like beers that have a slightly different aftertaste - I think some would call that "complex"?  It was foggy and dark red, and looked kind of like pomegranate juice.  It doesn't look very carbonated, but felt a little bubbly.  All in all, this was a really good sour beer.

I decided to stay in the sour realm and try Lost Abbey Cuvee de Tomme (Belgian Strong Ale, 11.5% ABV) next.  While the Lumberjack thought this was delicious - he said it was like the Double Cherry Red Poppy Emeril BAM style - and it rates a 100 on ratebeer, I have to say...not impressed.  There was no aroma and it tasted kind of bland, which was especially disappointing after enjoying the Double Cherry so much.  I gave the Lumberjack the rest of mine.

I tried a few other beers that I'm too lazy to type up, and then decided to taste Lagunitas Brown Shugga (Barleywine, 9.8% ABV), since the Lumberjack has been telling me for months that I'm going to love it.  And...as usual, he was right.  It had pretty lacing on the glass and tasted beautiful.  It had a light wheat flavor that I enjoyed - it's another beer that will be great on a hot sunny day.  Very sweet.  Good call, LJ.

Once we were done with the beer, we ate BBQ on Folsom.  Yeah, it was good.  Clearly my note-taking started suffering at this point.

Barrel Aged Festival - The Bistro, Hayward - November, 2009

Deeeelicious.

I will search out my notes sometime soon and will update with my top choices.  The one I remember the best was Deschutes The Abyss (Imperial Stout, 11% ABV).  The Lumberjack had been talking this beer up to me for weeks, telling me how much I was going to love it.  Oh, Lumberjack - you are so rarely wrong.  This beer was delicious.  Almost black (the name is quite fitting), and it smells really rich.  It's sweet, and intense, and is pretty much everything I love about beer.

The other beers were good, including one super-sour extravaganza.  I liked it so much I told a group of nearby guys to try it with their last tasting ticket...apparently they later looked VERY dissatisfied.  oops.  Not for everyone.